Conference Committee

Welcome to the conference Committee hearing. It is Monday, April 21st, 1:30PM here in Conference Room 325. Thank you Senators for being here. Thank you Members of the House for being here. We're here for the purpose of considering three measures.

First up, House Bill 410, House Draft 1 Senate Draft 1, relating to the budget of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. For the House we had Tarnas and Yamashita as co-chairs, and Members Poepoe talking and Garcia.

On the Senate side we have, myself. Myself is chair with Senator Moriwaki as co-chair and Senator Keohokalole and Dela Cruz Members.

Thank you. On this measure, you know, the House moved out the budget as requested from Oha. The Senate moved back, passed a Senate draft that was very different and the significantly reduced.

It was basically providing them status quo funding from years past and not the additional funds that had been requested which I know our Committee certainly was supportive of. Finance and Ways and Means have negotiated between the two of them on what was acceptable.

It's not what I preferred but it's what they've determined and they've asked us to consider the CD1 and reconvene with them, Ways and Means and finance at 5:11PM in Room 329. I don't know. Have you received any communication from Ways and Means.

You haven't received anything from boys. No, we have not.

So I have not gotten a proposed CD one from them but they've asked us to reconvene with them. So if we could let's plan to roll this over. Reconvene on House Bill 410 HD1 SD1 at 5:11PM in Room 309. Isn't that the finance room, yeah, today.

So, it's reconvening on House Bill 410, 5:11 PM today, May—April 21st—Monday at, in room 309. Okay. Thanks, let's move on to the next measure, House Bill 1091, relating to sewer transmission lines. On behalf of the House, we have co-chairs Tarnas and Kitagawa and Members Holt, Poepoe, and Shimizu.

On the Senate side, we have Senator Richards, myself, as Chair. DeCoite, Chang, Keohokalole is co-chaired with Fevella as Member.

Thank you. Thank you for your consideration of the House Draft which I strongly recommend to you, and I know you were considering the possibility of voting to approve the HD 1. Did you have any comments about that?

No. We will get the paperwork going and have that. So, if we roll that tomorrow to.

So, let's, let's have—what's that? 1:30. Yeah.

But in this room.

Yes. So, if it's okay that we reconvene on House Bill 1091 tomorrow, Tuesday, April 22nd, at 1:30 PM in this room, 325. All right.

Okay. So, 1:30 PM tomorrow here in this room.

Okay.

Yep. Sounds good.

I'll turn it over to you for the Senate Bill.

Thank you. On Senate Bill 903, we have as Senate...myself, Senator Richards as Chair, Senator Hashimoto as Co-Chair, and Senator Keohokalole and DeCorte as Members.

Thank you. On behalf of the House is Tarnas and Yamashita as co-chairs. Members Holt, PoePoe, and Garcia.

Thank you. We are waiting on our CD 1 right now, so I'd like to roll this over to tomorrow, Tuesday, in this room 329 at 1:30 PM.

We're 325.

So, yes, tomorrow, Tuesday, April 22nd, room 325, at 1:30 PM for Senate Bill 903. Sounds good to me.

Sounds good.

Okay. There being no further business before us, we are adjourned.

Okay, let's see if this mic is working. Can you hear me back there? Okay. Welcome to the joint to the Conference Committee, primarily between the Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs Committee of the House and the Judicial Committee of the Senate. This is our 2:00 PM agenda, here in room 325. First up on our agenda today is Senate Bill 176.

This allows for ballots designated by the county clerks for inclusion to be included in the initial tabulation for purposes of initial recounts. And then the other important change it makes is raises the percentage difference to 0.5% of total votes cast to automatically trigger a recount, up from 0.25. And the numerical difference is—remains at 100.

So, it's 100 or 0.5% of total votes cast will trigger a recount, whichever is smaller, right? The lesser of the two. And I believe the only—oh, I'm sorry. And for the Senate, it's myself as Chair and Senators Gabbard and Chang as managers.

On behalf of the House, we've got myself, Tarnas, as Chair, and Members Poepoe and Shimizu.

So, I believe the only difference between the bills is the effective date proposed that we make it effective upon approval.

Yes, I agree.

Okay, let me get a vote sheet. You have your quorum?

Yes.

[Roll Call]

All right, moving on to SB 264 is relating to fitness to proceed Penal responsibility for the Senate. It's myself as chair, Senator Aquino as co-chair, and awa as manager.

Thank you. On behalf of the House, it's Tarnas and Kitagawa as co-chairs. Members Bilotti and Shimizu.

I believe the only difference is putting in the dollar amounts and clean date. Is that correct? Yes. We do have a proposed CD one. I don't know if we.

So I have received your proposed CD one. And I just want to confirm that the appropriation that we are requesting in here 975,000 for each fiscal year. Is that correct.

It's 975. And I believe it's both years. Yes, both years. Okay.

I will go ahead and request fin release on this. Okay. And if it's okay, then let's reconvene.

Okay. Do you want to go tomorrow, Do you want to go 2:00PM tomorrow.

Okay. Thank you.

All right. So 2:00PM tomorrow, which would be the 22nd and here in this Room 325. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I will have something I'll ask you to sign afterwards to. For our memo for WAM. Yes. Next up is SB 304. This is having to do with Judiciary Adult Client Services Branch first Circuit Court appropriation.

I believe our only difference are filling in the blanks and putting a good date on it. I believe we passed over. I'm sorry. For the Senate, it's myself as Chair and Senator Inouye co-chair and Awa as manager.

Thank you. On behalf of the House, we have Tarnas and Kitagawa as co-chairs. Members Bilotti and Shimizu.

I believe we passed over a proposed CD one. The position count would be eight full time probation officers at 73,836 apiece. One full time social worker assistant at 50,882. full time clerks at 48,936 each. So the appropriation total would be 739,440 in salaries, 140,000 in operating expense expenses. That sound familiar.

It does, I'm going to need because the CD1 has got, you know, blank for the amounts and blank for the FTEs in order to for me to request FIN release. I'll need the details. Okay.

Which are not in the CD1, but I'll need the details so that I can ask that get released from fin. Okay. So it's just the FTE and the total appropriations requested. That would be great. If I could just get that info. That'd be. Then I'll go ahead and request. Vince, shall we reconvene on this tomorrow, 2:00PM.

2:00PM is fine with me. On April 22nd in this Room 326.

Thank you.

Okay. Thank you. Okay. Moving on to SB 428. This is having to do with raising witness fees for mileage for the Senate as myself as Chair, Co-Chair Kanuha, and Manager Awa.

On behalf of the House, it's Tarnas and Kitagawa as Co-Chair, Shimizu as Member.

This case, let's see. In this case, there's no appropriation, but it does have FIN and WHAM referrals. I don't believe we're that far apart on the—just double check here. Yeah, I think we're—I think we're there on the substance.

Yeah, I think so. If you're okay with the HD 1, we just need to have a clean date on it, and I need to get FIN release.

Okay. Shall we roll till tomorrow at 2?

Yes, please.

Okay. 2 PM, April 22, in this room, 325. Okay. Moving on to SB 1469. This is having to do with collection of taxes, statute of limitations. For the Senate, is myself as Chair, Senator Kanuha as Co-Chair, and Awa as a manager.

On behalf of the House, we've got Tarnas and Kitagawa as Co-Chairs, Shimizu as Member.

On this one.

It's not yours. Okay.

Okay. Again, I think we're essentially there on the substance.

I agree, and we just need the effective date upon approval, I think, is what we need. Yeah. Is that your opinion? Okay. I need to, I still need to get FIN release on this.

Yeah. So, why don't we roll this till 2:00 clock tomorrow as well? Room 325. That's April 22nd.

Okay.

Okay. All right, that brings us to SB, SB 369. I'm sorry, HB, all yours.

So, House Bill 869—excuse me, House Bill 369, Senate Draft 1, relating to campaign contributions. This is following up on a Bill we did previously that we could only accept $100 in cash from an individual. Any candidate could only accept $100 in cash from a donor.

What this does, it makes it clear that if you get more than $100 in cash contributed from an individual, you have to return it, or within 30 days, if not, then it escheats to the Hawaii Election Campaign Fund. So, that's the purpose of the Bill.

On behalf of the House, we have myself and Kitagawa as Co-Chairs, Garcia as Member.

For the Senate, it's myself as chair, Hashimoto as Co-Chair, and Fevella as a manager.

Thank you. You know, we're okay with the Senate Draft on this one, where you added a savings clause. So, I think if we can—I will request that I can get FIN release to have the effective date upon approval. Because you need a CD 1, we'll prepare one that has that in it and send it to you so you could request WHAM release.

Okay.

Is that okay with you?

Yep.

So let's roll this over to tomorrow, 422, 2:00 PM, here in conference room 325.

Okay. Thank you. Actually, no, so, you have a separate HB agenda, right? You want to just flip these over to that one, just for clarity's sake? You have a 205 agenda with a bunch of HBs on it, correct? Do we want to combine them?

If we could just keep it on your agenda for one more day, and then we can start combining them.

Okay.

Okay. Last Bill is a House Bill, House Bill 990, HD 2, SD 1. Making appropriations for claims against the state, its officers, or its employees. On behalf of the House, we have Tarnas and Kitagawa as Co-Chair, Shimizu as Member.

Thanks. For the Senate, it's myself as Chair, Senator Moriwaki as Co-Chair, and Awa as manager.

Thank you. We've received the latest information from the Attorney General. I would like to use that to prepare a CD 1 for your review. We'll send it to you as soon as we get it. And then, if it's okay with you, then we would seek FIN and WHAM release on the...

If all we're doing is adding the most recent claims, that will be fine.

And that's all we're planning on doing is adding the most recent claims. So, let's roll it over till tomorrow, same agenda. 422, 2:00 PM, here in conference room 325.

Okay, thank you.

Okay. Thank you.

Adjourned.

We're convening House and Senate Conference Committee meeting. It is Thursday, excuse me, it's Monday, April 21st. Yeah. I'm reading off of our agenda from last week. It's Monday, April 21st. It's a 2:05 agenda, but it's already 2:15, in Conference Room 325, and we're here for the purpose of considering numerous measures.

First up is House Bill 126, House Draft 1 and Senate Draft 2, relating to property forfeiture. On behalf of the House is Tarnas, Kitagawa as Co-Chairs, and Shimizu as Member.

Thank you. For the Senate, it's myself as Chair, Senator...as Co-Chair, and Fevella as Manager.

Thank you. After discussions with you, Senator, and your staff, we've put together a proposed conference draft and have sent it over to you. I would request that you take a look at it and consider that as a path forward. And then, we can meet again on this and decide how we want to move forward with it.

Yes, thank you. We did get the draft. We are in the process of reviewing it and we'll—if we could have one more day. That would be helpful.

So, let's reconvene tomorrow at 2:05, here in conference room 325, and that would be April 22nd.

Sounds good, thanks.

Okay, thank you. I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. Okay, moving on to the next measure, House Bill 134, House Draft 1, Senate Draft 1, relating to elections.

This, we have, on behalf of the House, Tarnas and Kitagawa as Co-Chairs, and Matsumoto as Member.

For the Senate, it's myself as chair, Co-Chair Kim, and Manager Fevella.

Thank you. We are preparing a CD 1. Did we send it to him?

Yes.

Okay. We prepared a CD 1, and I think we—oh, we found a mistake in it and we're correcting it, and so, then, as soon as we get the corrected version, we'll send it to you. The idea is that we would have an effective date of January 1st, 2028, with $150,000 in a funds appropriation. So, we're just—there was a mistake in it, so we'll get it fixed, and we'll send it over to you.

But that's what we're proposing to do in a CD 1.

Sounds good.

So, let's roll this over to tomorrow, 2:05 PM, here in conference room 325. That would be April 22nd.

Okay, great.

Thank you. Okay, next measure. House Bill 370, partial public financing of elections. On behalf of the House, we have Tarnas and Kitagawa as Co-Chairs, Garcia as Member.

Thank you. For the Sennate, t's myself as Chair, Chair—Senator Hashimoto as Co-Chair, and manager, Fevella.

So, we have an initial draft of a CD 1 for this. We're still working on it. I would request we roll this over to tomorrow, 422 at 2:05 PM. On behalf of the House, we have Tarnas and Kitagawa as Co-Chairs, Belatti and Garcia as Members.

Thanks. For the Senate, it's myself as Chair, Moriwaki as Co-Chair, and Awa as manager.

So, we've prepared a CD 1 and transmitted it to your office for your consideration. If, if it's—if it looks good to you, let me know and then we could.

It looks good to us. You put in $50 for the rate to daily.

Yes. Yes. Okay, so let's go ahead and request release from our respective money committees and reconvene on this tomorrow.

Sounds good.

422 at 2:05 p.m. here in conference room 325. Okay, next measure. House Bill 396 relating to compensation for court appointed counsel. On behalf of the House, we have Tarnas and Kitagawa co Chairs, Belatti and Garcia as Members.

Sentence, myself as Chair. Co Chair Moriwaki and Member Awa.

Okay, We've prepared and sent you a CD one on this for your review. If it looks good to you, then let's go ahead and request release from our respective money committees.

Looks good to us. Yep.

Okay, thank you. Let's reconvene on this tomorrow in Conference Room 325, and that would be April 22nd at 2:05 PM.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, next measure, House Bill 398, relating to compensation for court appointed representation. On behalf of the House, we have Tarnas and Kitagawa as co-chairs Belatti and Garcia as members.

Thanks. On HB 398 we have me as chair and co-chair Moriwaki and manager Fevella.

Thank you. On this one, the only change we were putting on here is upon approval. We sent you a—we sent, we sent a CD 1 to you for you to use to request WHAM release, and I am requesting FIN release. I have not received it yet.

So, let's roll this over to tomorrow, 4/22, at 2:05 PM, in conference room 325.

Sounds good. Thank you.

Okay. House Bill 399, relating to district court judges. On behalf of the House, we have Tarnas and Kitagawa as co-chairs, Belatti and Garcia as Members.

For the Senate, myself as chair, Moriwaki as co-chair, and Awa as manager.

Same on this one. CD 1 is just the effective date of 7-1-2025. We have requested FIN release. We request you do the same with Ways and Means.

If we haven't done it already, we will very soon.

Okay. All right, so let's reconvene on this measure tomorrow at 2:05 PM, here in conference room 325, on April 22nd.

Okay, thank you.

Okay, thank you. Okay, next measure, House Bill 400, relating to the Judiciary. This is the Judiciary budget. On behalf of the House, we have Tarnas and Yamashita as co-chairs, Poepoe and Takenouchi and Garcia as Members.

Thank you. For the Senate, myself as Chair, Moriwaki as Co-Chair, and Awa as manager.

Thank you. On this, I was informed that FIN and WHAM have come to some agreement on this. I was briefed on it this morning, but I don't have a CD 1.

I think probably you were in a similar situation, and we were asked to join our Ways and Means in Finance, Members, co chairs, on this later on today at 5, 5:10 PM, in room 309, for further consideration of this measure.

309 today. Okay.

So, that's, that's—yeah, that's the finance room.

So, was there any resolution on the civil legal?

I think yes. They were planning to put it into the—rather than in the Judiciary budget, putting into the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. Is that what—you're. Right. It would be in the state budget. Yeah, it would be in the overall state budget, in DLIR.

That's not my understanding. Well, if there's some additional funding that would go through the Executive branch is my understanding.

Yes. So, it would be the additional 1.75, just...

Why don't we—we got to meet again at 5:10, so why don't we try to figure it out then?

Well, I, I will, I will seek to get the answer so I can be better prepared to respond to your question. But let's plan to reconvene on this measure at 5:10 in room 309 to get those answers and be able to make sure we're comfortable with it before we vote on it.

Great. Thank you.

Okay. Next measure.

House Bill 401 relating to district court judges on behalf of the House. Tarnas and Kitagawa as co Chairs, Belatti and Garcia as Members.

For the Senates, myself as Chair, Morikawa co Chair and Awa as manager.

On this measure there would be effective date upon approval and we have. We've requested fin release and have not received it yet.

Okay. Just CD1. It's not. It's easily resolved one way or the other. But the CD one we have from you said 7-1-2025 is the effective date. Zero, we have a revised one that.

Was sent over, but we can resend it. So this is the third. Is this the one that is upon approval or Is this the July 1st one?

This is the third circuit.

This should be upon approval. So this should have been upon approval. So we will send you a corrected version. Okay, great.

Sorry.

Yeah, so we have the proposed dash one is what we're looking at.

What's the date that one?

July 1, 2025. I just don't know what it's. Okay. All right, that's fine.

Yeah. I think part of the issue was. Well, I won't have to. We'll correct it and make sure that you've got the corrected version of it. Let's roll this over to tomorrow 422 at 2:05 p.m. here in conference room 325. And we'll, we'll get those. We'll get that straightened out. Great, thanks. Okay.

Okay. 648, relating to guardianship and conservatorship services. On behalf of the House, Tarnas and Kitagawa as co-chairs, Belatti, Marten, and Shimizu as members.

On 648, for the Senate, myself as chair, Elefante as co-chair, and Awa as a manager.

On this—we, I'm quite sure we've sent you a CD 1 on this one. Yes? That would include 100,000 to probate, 100,000 to family court, and the start date, effective date of July 1, 2025. So, if it's okay with you, we could request release from our respective money committees.

Okay, so the proposed CD we received has the sum of 50,000. Oh, I see how you, you're saying 50,000 twice for both. So, it's 100 for each. Okay, all right. Yeah, that's. Yeah, we're amenable of that.

Yeah, it's 50,000 in four different places.

We just wrote it out differently. Oh, okay, cool. That's a—that's a point. So,it was, it—was it your intention? Because initially, the Bill had twice as much money, 200,000 total. So, it's 100,000 each year, each court for each year. 200,000 total.

I mean, the numbers are so small that I, my feeling would probably be let's—unless they don't need it. Unless you have some communication from Judiciary that they don't need that much money, in which case that's fine, but I.

So, we've got 50,000 to First Circuit probate in each of two fiscal years.

Right. And I believe it was—I believe it was 100,000 to each in each year for, sorry, I'm not.

So, you're talking to be a total of $400,000?

Yeah. Okay. As introduced, it was 100,000 each year for both. So, that would be, yes, 400,000. 400,000.

So, we've come back with cutting that in half.

Okay, so that's—I just want to be sure that's, that's what you wanted to do.

Okay, so we've come back and cut that in half.

So, we think the Judiciary can do what they need to do. Would they get back to us, get these numbers from them?

Brandon's a yes.

Okay. All right.

Well, I should have just done that to start with. Brandon. Brandon. Yeah, so we did work with Judiciary on this.

They said that this is the best way to proceed. So, we're okay with that.

We're fine.

Okay, thank you, Brandon. Okay, so let's go ahead and request our respective money committees for release on this measure and reconvene on this tomorrow, 4/22, at 2:05 PM, here in conference room 325.

Okay. The joy of having so many bills go simultaneously, I don't always remember. So, I apologize.

Great. Thank you.

No need to apologize.

Okay. House Bill 727 relating to women's court on behalf of the House. We have Tarnas and Kitagawa's co Chairs Belatti, Ichiyama, Poepoe and Shimizu as Members.

For the Senate, myself as Chair, co Chair Decoite and Member Awa.

Thank you on this. We are. We prepared a conference draft one for your review and send it over if you would consider it. Then let us know your thoughts. If it looks good then we can request our money committees.

We don't have it yet, but is it just the SD? Is it.

We'll make sure that you get it. We'll send it again.

Was it the SD2 with a clean date or was there something else?

You know our vice speaker was working on it and with there may be some additional changes.

Okay.

We'll take a look to take a look at it.

All right, thank you.

So let's reconvene on this at 4:22 at 2:05 p.m. here in conference room 325.

Thank you.

Okay, last measure. House Bill 1001 relating to settlement of claims related to the Maui wildfires on behalf of the House, Tarnas and Yamashita as co Chairs. Poepoe, Takenouchi and Garcia as Members.

Thank you for the sentence. Myself as chair, co chairs Chang and Wakai and Member Awa.

Thank you. We have. We prepared a cd. So we have a CD one which I think we sent over to. Did we? Yes. Okay. So we. We prepared a CD one send it over for your consideration. If you would take a look at. If it looks good to you.

Then we'd need to request our respective money committees for clarity clearance.

Can we hang on just for. Yes, a couple minutes here? Yeah. So my understanding is it's just the money and the date and the money was a paltry 400 million and just slightly more. 407 million. Does that sound right?

A staggeringly staggering amount of money.

Beyond my wildest imagination. Yes.

Yeah. So if you would take a look at that. If it is good, then let's go ahead and request release from Fin and Wham. And let's consider this. Let's reconvene on this tomorrow 2:05 p.m. here in conference room 325. And that would be on April 22nd.

Sounds good. Thanks very much.

Okay, we are adjourned.

Welcome to the conference Committee of the House and Senate. It is April 21st, 3:30pm here in Conference Room 325. Thanks to the Senators for being here and House Member for being here as well. We're here for the purpose of considering a couple of measures on the 3:30 agenda. First up, we have House Bill 550-D-2SD1 relating to fireworks.

On behalf of the House, we have Co-Chairs Tarnas and Kitagawa and Member Shimizu.

Thank you so much. Chair on behalf of the Senate is Senator Elefante. As Chair, Co Chairs Rhodes and Kim, Members Wakaya and Favela.

Thank you. Thank you for your work on this measure. We're okay with the SD one with a clean date upon approval. I have requested fin and I'm still awaiting.

Okay, and on our end? Yeah, we're okay with that. You're talking about the proposed CD1 draft? Yes, and what we have agreed to. And we have also sent a memo to Ways and Means and have not gotten any word back yet on that.

Okay, so if it's okay with you, I'd like to reconvene on this tomorrow at 3:30 here in conference room 325. That would be Tuesday, April 22nd. Yep, that works for us. Okay, 3:30. Thank you. Okay, let's move on to the next measure. House Bill 1045, House Draft 1.

Senate Draft 1 making emergency appropriations for law enforcement personnel costs. On behalf of the House, we have Tarnas and Kitagawa as co Chairs and Shimizu as Member.

On behalf of the Senate is Senator Elefante as Chair, Co Chair Moriwaki and Members Fukunaga and DeCorte.

Thank you. On this measure, we had prepared a CD1. And then on further analysis, we find some discrepancy in the numbers between what BNF is requesting and what was in the bill. So we are going to correct those appropriations so that we're comfortable with them and send you that CD1. I'm sorry for the delay. Okay.

No, that works for us. So we will get that CDU one to you as soon as we can with the correct appropriation amounts. And then if it does look good to you, then we could move forward and request release from our respective money committees.

Okay, that works for us.

Okay, so I'd like to roll this over to tomorrow, 3:30 p.m. here in Conference Room 325 on Tuesday, April 22nd.

That works for us too.

Okay, great. Thank you very much. Okay, we are no further business on this agenda. So we are adjourned.

Thank you.

Welcome to the conference Committee, Monday, April 21, 2025. 3:45 p.m. here in Conference Room 325 for the purposes of considering four measures. Thank you to the Senators for being here. Appreciate your kokua. Thank you to the House Members for being here as well.

First up, we have House Bill 472, House Draft 1, Senate Draft 2 relating to digital identification. On behalf of the House, we have Tarnas and Kitagawa as co Chairs, Representatives Lee and Garcia as Members.

Thank you, Chair. On behalf of the Senate is Senator Elefante. As Chair, Co Chairs Senator Keohokalole and Gabbard and Members Fukunaga and DeCorte.

Thank you very much. On this measure, we're okay with the language in the Senate Draft 2. Thank you for your work on that. I would like to propose that we put it in a clean date upon approval and I am requesting FIN release for this. I don't have it yet, but that's my intention.

If it's okay with you, I'd like to reconvene. If that strategy works for you.

Yeah, that works for us. And we don't need any Wham on our end.

Yeah. So it's. It's on me to get the FIN release. But if you're okay with going with the SD2 and a clean date upon approval, that's what we'll do. And if it's okay, then let's reconvene on this measure tomorrow, April 22nd here in conference room 325 at 3:30 p.m.

Yup. That works for us.

Okay, let's do that. Thank you very much. Next measure 1483, House Bill 1483 relating to fireworks. On this measure, representing the House Co Chairs Tarnas and Kitagawa and Member Shimizu.

And on behalf of the Senate, Elefante as Chair. Rhodes and Kim as Co-Chair, and Members Wakai and Favela.

Thank you. Thank you for your work on this measure. We have prepared conference draft one, proposed conference draft one and sent it to you. If I may, I could just briefly describe about what's in the proposed CD1.

Please proceed.

Thank you. Using the Senate Draft 1 as the base, what we did is we moved the existing adjudication of the infractions, Chapter 291 to a more appropriate division of the Hawaii Revised Statutes. It's part C, part three of the proposed CD1 and we included the necessary conforming amendments which are in Part 4 of the proposed CD1.

Chapter 291D is currently in the HRS title related to motor and other vehicles. The proposed CD1 would move the chapter to Division 4 of the HRS, which is related to courts and judicial proceedings. We thought that was more appropriate.

Also, rather than listing each type of infraction throughout the chapter, such as Traffic infraction, Emergency period infraction, fireworks infraction, we are using the defined term covered infraction, end quote, which is on page 54 of the proposed CD1, and quote notice of Covered Infraction, which is on page 55 of the proposed CD1.

The purpose of this amendment is to improve the readability of the chapter and allow the Legislature to easily add new infractions to the chapter in the future. And for those same purposes, we also renamed the quote, Traffic Emergency Period and Fireworks Division to Traffic and Emergency Period Violations Bureaus. Excuse me.

We renamed the Traffic Emergency Period and Fireworks Division and the Traffic and Emergency Period Violations Bureaus to Adjudication of Infractions Bureau Division and Adjudication of Infractions Bureaus. This should clean the measure up to make it easier to read for those who like to read Hawaii Revised Statutes.

We're also deleting the Appropriations section, Section 35, and we're inserting an effective date so we can implement the measure. So that's the main changes that we made in the proposed CD1. If I may, Senator, I would request that you take a look at those at that proposed CD1.

If it is to your liking, then we could move forward and request release from our respective money committees.

Yeah, and we did receive that, so thank you for that. So we'll take a look at that. And that sounds good and how you explain that, but we'll take a further look on that.

Okay. Please study that. I appreciate that. So if it's okay with you, let's reconvene on this measure tomorrow, April 22nd here in Conference Room 325 at 3:30pm.

Yep, that works for us.

Okay, great. Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Let's move on to the Senate Bill. It's yours. All yours.

Thank you. So we'll move on to Senate Bill 222. Senate Draft 1, House Draft 2. This is relating to Fireworks. On behalf of the Senate, it's Elefante as Chair, Kanuha and Wakai as co Chairs, and Members Fukunaga and Favela.

Thank you. On behalf of the House, it's Tarnas and Kitagawa as co chair, Shimizu as Member.

Okay, so on this one we did circulate a proposed CD1 draft to you. And I believe that we're going to be Working off the House draft 2, which we have a clean date upon approval, provided that Section 2 shall take effect on June 29, 2025. And on our end, we do have. When we release on this measure.

Thank you for preparing the final version of this. We agree on behalf of the House to the proposed conference draft, and we are happy to say we have fin release so we can go ahead and vote on this measure.

Awesome.

If I may, before we read, could I just.

Yep. The description.

Describe it. Yes. That this extends SB 222, Senate Draft 1, House Draft 2 that we're seeking to approve in a conference draft that extends the sunset date of the task force and requires additional reports to the Legislature so they can continue their good work.

Yep. Thank you for that. Sounds good to us. The recommendation is to pass with a CD1. This is on Senate Bill 222. Senate draft 1. House draft 2. On the Senate. [Roll Call] May I take the vote for the House? Yes, please. Okay.

[Roll Call] We have a bill. Thank you.

Thank you. Senator Fukunaga. Thank you. Senator Kanuha. You got out the door fast enough.

They're preparing a fireworks show for you.

Thank you.

And then our last item on this agenda is Senate Bill 1030. Senate Draft 2, House Draft 1. This is relating to elections, and I believe with this one, we don't need any wham or fin release. And we're agreeable? Well, actually, yes. Go ahead. Do you want to read your. Oh, yes. I'll read our conferees.

On behalf of the Senate, it's Elefante as chair. Co-Chair is Rhodes and Member Wakaya.

Thank you. On behalf of the House is Tarnas. As Chair, Members Poepoe and Garcia, I wanted to say thank you for your work on this measure. The House is prepared to vote to approve The Senate Draft 2, which has a clean date so that we can move this Bill forward. Okay, that works for us.

And thank you for agreeing to that. We have the vote sheet.

Oh, it is a Senate Bill.

It's technically a CD more.

But, so you're saying that we need to have everyone vote on it. Okay, we'll defer to a senior Member who's been around. So this would be a. You want to describe the CD one that we are voting on?

Yeah. So you're agreeing to our Senate Draft 2, which is basically has a clean date upon approval.

And on page three, lines one to 16, where it says, provided that the practice of intimidation as described in this paragraph includes, among other actions, the unconcealed carry of any dangerous instrument, including a firearm, at or within 200ft of any voter service center, place of deposit, or polling place. And then we should probably read the description.

I think you just did.

Okay, so what you just read is really the essence of the Bill, that it specifies that the practice of election fraud intimidation includes carrying any unconcealed dangerous instrument which includes firearms at or within 200ft of a voter service center, place a deposit or polling in place. So I'm prepared to vote on a CD one that reflects that.

Okay, so that would be basically.

So I think, according to Chair Rhodes, I think you go ahead and take your vote. Yeah.

So would this be a recommendation of the House managers to agree to the Senate amendments? CD1. It'll just be a CD1. Okay, do a CD1.

Basically what it is, they. They change. They kept our Bill but changed the date. So we got to change the date back.

But there's a difference between the House.

Okay. Okay. As long as we're clear on what this is. Yeah. CD1. CD1.

Okay. So with that, recommendations to pass as a conference draft, one Chair Elefante votes aye. Co-Chair Rhodes, Member Wakai. And may I take the vote for the House? Yes, please. Chair Tarnas. Aye. Member Poepoe and Member Garcia. No vote. Okay. We have a Bill.

Thank you.

Okay, that's it. Right. So there being no further business before this Committee, we are adjourned.

Good afternoon everyone. Will the joint House and Senate conference committees please come to order? This is April 21st, 2025. This is our 1:30pm agenda. We're in Conference Room 16. We have several items on our reconvene agenda.

Members, if you don't mind, if it's not too much trouble, if we could go out of order and if there are no objections, we'll begin with House Bill 433 House Draft 1 Senate Draft 1. If there are no objections, we'll take that up first. This is relating to public safety. You want to start with that chair?

Sure. Conferees on our side are myself, co chair Lamaso and Representatives Kapella, Morikawa and Shimizu.

And on behalf of the Senate is Senator Elefante as chair. Co Chair, Senator Kanuha, Senator Rhoads and their court are members.

Chair. My recommendation for this is. You're open to it. We both conferred. The $4 million is appropriated for reentry services in the budget. That was the subject matter of this bill. The last remaining item is request that the DCCR do or the DCR do a reporting requirement.

But I don't think that we need that in a bill that we could just ask them to report publicly. So my recommendation is that we defer this bill. So. So we don't need it since it's already the appropriation is already in the budget.

Oh, we're in agreement to that.

Okay, so we will defer that one out. And that takes care of that. We can start at the top of the agenda. Yep.

You want to go back to the first item on the agenda.

Yes, and we are able to go ahead and move forward with those.

Okay, so Members going back to the first item, which is Senate Bill 88, House Draft 1. This is relating to the Hawaii National Guard. On behalf of the Senate is Senator Elephante as Chair. Co Chair Senator Kanuha and Fukunaga and Senator Wakai and DeCoite are Members.

And on our side we have a full house. We have myself and Representative Lamosao as Co Chairs, Representatives Iwamoto, Morikawa and Souza as managers.

Okay, thank you. So I believe on this, as we do have an agreement, we circulated a proposed CD-1 which just basically defects the date to make it effective upon approval. So you should have received a copy of that chair to your Members. And then on our end, we do have WAM release on our side.

And we have fin release as well. So I think we can vote.

Okay, great.

You need me to read the description, is that correct?

Yes, which I did already yeah.

Well, we'll just read it again. This is, authorizes the payment of allowances for TRICARE. TRICARE dental program and vision coverage to all officers, warrant officers and enlisted personnel of the Hawaii National Guard, ordered to active duty for more than 30 days. With that, we do have a quorum on our end. Okay.

So with that, the recommendation is to pass with a conference draft, which makes the date effective. Upon approval, I believe, right? Yeah, upon approval. So with that from the Senate Chair Elefante, I vote aye. Co Chair Kanuha? Co Chair Fukunaga is excused. Member Wakai.

Yes.

Member DeCoite? Thank you. May I take the vote for the house?

Please.

Okay. Chair Belatti?

Aye.

Co Chair Lamosao? Member Iwamoto?

Aye.

Member Morikawa? And Member Souza? And we have a Bill.

We have a Bill. Yay.

Let's see if we can get our person. Oh, you are? Okay. You're the one person.

Okay. Okay. We'll move on to our next item, if that's okay with you, Chair?

Yes, please.

Okay. This is Senate Bill 1377. Senate draft 2. House draft 1, relating to veteran cemeteries. On behalf of the Senate, Senator Elephante as Chair, Co Chairs Hashimoto and Wakai, and Member Fevella.

And on the House side, myself, Co Chair Lamosao, Representatives Iwamoto, Morikawa and Shimizu for managers.

Okay. Thank you for that. We did circulate a proposed conference draft which we have shared with you folks and our Members. And then we just need to effect the date to upon approval on that. And we do have WAM release.

We also have FIN release. And there was just a slight technical where we took the HD1 version of the -is that correct? Of that language about concerned veterans versus just veterans and citizens.

Right. Which we removed the word concerned. Yeah. Thank you for your work on this. Okay, so with that, that's your understanding too? We have WAM/FIN release? Okay. Okay. Okay. Why don't we go ahead and proceed with the vote if that's okay with you, Chair?

Yes, please.

Okay, so recommendation is to pass with a CD-1. Chair Elefante. I go, aye. Co Chair Hashimoto? Co Chair Wakai?

Yes.

And Member Fevella?

Aye.

May I take the vote for the House, please? Co Chair Belatti?

Aye.

Co Chair Lamosao? Member Iwamoto?

Aye.

Member Morikawa? And Member Shimizu? Okay, we have a Bill.

We have a Bill. We're done.

Oh, yeah, hang on. We. We have to vote this first.

Yes. We might not cut that down.

Okay there being no further business we're adjourned.

Meeting our conference committee this today is Monday April 21st, 2025, 1:45pm in conference room 016 this is for House Bill 1296 House draft 1 Senate draft 1 relating to the major disaster fund. Chair if I could open up on our side we have this is a bill related to the major disaster fund and more transparency for that fund on our side I have myself co Chair Lamasao, Representatives Iwamoto, Morikawa and Suza.

On behalf of the Senate Senator Elefante as chair, co chair is Senator Hashimoto and members Wakai and DeCourte.

Chair there's some questions about which agencies we want to do the reporting on our side so if we can can we roll this over to 1:30pm tomorrow same room and hopefully by then we'll have draft prepared for you that we could pass across the desk.

Yep, that sounds good with us all right, that's it.

We're adjourned until 1:30 tomorrow.

Great, thank you.

Now convening the conference committee on a slew of bills rating to higher education. Today is Monday April 21st. A few minutes after 3pm we are in room conference room 229 at the State Capitol.

Senator, before we begin today, I just want to say how excited I am about this upcoming week and working with you on a series of bills to advance higher education in the state.

So you're willing to agree to all. Thank you.

Dates perhaps. But why don't we go ahead and get started. The first four bills on our agenda today are Governor's package bills and then we have a nursing bill on the back of the agenda. So House Bill 1168 HD1 SD1 relating to University of Hawaii revenue bonds. For the House I have myself and Rep.

Kitagawa's co chairs, Members Amato and Moroka.

Okay. And for the Senate, myself as chair, Hashimoto Co Chair and Fevella as our member.

Okay, thank you Senator. So I believe in this bill you the Senate made a pretty substantial amendment in terms of the proviso Langos added. Could you explain that to us please?

Well, basically we wanted to be sure that the revenue bonds would be used for student housing and that the cost to renovate and to get the housing up and running, that it would.

They're going to increase the cost to the students to live in the dorms and we wanted to make sure that residents of Hawaii students would be able to get stipends or scholarships or something to the nature so that they would not be out of the market because of the they couldn't afford to.

Sure. Okay, understood. And I know the money committees are working on trying to include that language in the budget bill.

Yes.

So also on this bill we did receive a letter from the Attorney General's Office, citing some concerns. So what we'll do if it's okay with you, is work on a CD one to try to address again the concerns from the Attorney General's Office.

This might take a little bit of time so would you be okay if we defer this one until Wednesday 4/23 at 3:00pm in this room and we will circulate a CD1 to you in advance for your consideration. Yes. April 23rd 3:00pm in this room.

Okay, up next we have House Bill 1169 HD1 SD2 relating to the University of Hawaii Conference center revolving fund, myself and Rep. Holt is co chairs Members Amato and Moroka.

And for the Senate myself as chair, Hashimoto co Chair and Fevella Member.

Okay. So on this one I believe it's relatively housekeeping in nature. Just consolidating some existing funds into one master fund. And I believe the only difference. Well, there are some technical changes but we did have a defective date on the House side. We do have a CD one for your consideration.

Yes. And the Senate can agree to your proposed CD1.

Okay, that's great. So unfortunately we do not have been release on this one just yet but we will follow up on that. So would you be okay to defer this one until tomorrow? We do have a 1:30 agenda posted. Would 1:45 tomorrow work for you in this room?

145 works. Okay.

Okay, so House Bill 1169 HD1 SD2. Tuesday 4/22 at 1:45 in this room. Okay, thank you. Up next, House Bill 1170 HD1 SD1 relating to the University of Hawaii resident tuition fee. So I believe this one. We both had a version where any student who graduated within the last four years could automatically get residence status of enrollment at UH.

Are you still good with the four years? The four year look back I see.

In your proposed draft it says two years. We could agree to that.

Two years.

That's in your proposal. Okay. Just sent over. Right.

Okay. Okay. So thank you for the CD one reflecting two years for that. We will again seek FIN release on this one. No money involved. But again we'll try to fast track that approval. Can we defer this till tomorrow at 1:45 in this room?

Okay. You think we'll get Fin.

I hope so. I know we're trying to move the non appropriation bills fairly quickly on our side. Okay, so we'll go 1:45. I'm sorry, Tuesday 4/22, 1:45 in this room. And that's for House Bill 1170. Okay, last House Bill on this agenda. House Bill 1171 HD2 SD1 relating to the University of Hawaii relief funding.

This is the bill relating to disaster aid to make sure students aren't punished on the financial aid side if they do receive such funds.

Yes. You did send over our proposed CD 1--

Yes.

And said it's amenable to your proposed draft.

Okay, great. And just for the record, the CD 1 that we had circulated includes a $3 million cap on the fund and a clean effective date. Okay? So likewise we'll request a FIN release on this one as well. So may we also roll this to tomorrow, Tuesday, April 22nd at 1:45. Okay.

Okay, and with that, I will turn the floor back to you for the last bill on our agenda: SB 119.

See how I'm the--

This is easy.

Okay, so for Senate Bill 119, we have conference for the Senate, myself as chair, Hashimoto co-chair, and Member Fevella.

Okay, and thank you. For the House, myself and Rep. Holt as co-chairs, Members Amato, Miyake, and Souza.

We did send over a proposed draft--or actually it was a red line or blue line, whatever you want to call it.

Yes.

I don't know if you had time to review it.

We did. It looks like you added the funding amount, so 250,000 in FY 25-26 and then 350,000 in FY 26-27.

To establish a Bachelor of Art--Science Nursing Degree at the University of Hawaii Maui College.

Okay, we're certainly amenable to that. It's just a matter of getting the money committees to release that funding.

Okay, so shall we roll this one over also for 1:45?

Sure. So tomorrow, Tuesday, April 22, at 1:45.

And hopefully we can vote on it.

That'd be great.

Okay.

That was easy. Thank you, Senator. Adjourned.

All right, good afternoon. Now convening the Conference Committee for, again, a series of higher education bills. Today's Monday, April 21, 2020. It is 3:45 p.m. here in Conference Room 229 in the State Capitol. Senator, if I may begin with the House bills on the agenda first?

The House Bill is on the agenda first. House Bill 718 HD1SD1 relating to positions at the John A. Burns School of Medicine. For the House, myself and Rep Hold as co chairs Members Miyake, Sayama, and Souza.

And for the Senate, myself as Chair, Kanuha, Co Chair and Favela Member.

Okay, thank you, Senator. For this Bill, I believe the only difference we had was the effective date. So in terms of the Bill itself, I know it included a total of 4 FTEs for JABSOM, 3 positions for their faculty with the hopes that this would increase their cohort size.

So these are faculty positions in the fields of cardiovascular biology, tropical medicine and quantitative health biostatistics. And they also requested a environmental health and safety officer staff position due to some challenges with the border water contract for that.

So I thought I had a recollection, recollection that it might be included in the budget. Anybody from here from JABSOM? No. Okay. But yeah, so we can do a- You're going to do a CD-1?

We can do a CD-1. Putting in the amounts, I believe in prior iterations the amount was a total of 763,000 in each fiscal year for again for the total of 4.0 FTEs. So we will circulate a CD-1 and then request fin release if on our side.

Okay. And can we go on the record to say that as far as I know, we have not cut any budget or anything from the John A. Burns School. We may not have incorporated some of the requests that came in, but we have not cut it.

So the news articles in the paper that saying we're cutting JABSOM. I want to be on record to correct that. And if not, then we can find places to cut. You know, you guys insist we're cutting and certainly find places to cut.

Duly noted. So would tomorrow, April 22nd at 1:45 in this room work for you?

Hold on. We've got a long agenda tomorrow. Okay, got it.

Thank you. So That's House Bill 718 tomorrow, Tuesday 1:45pm in this room. Next bill, House Bill 736 HD1 SD1 relating to wastewater systems. For the House, myself and Rep. Sloan and Takenuchi as co chairs Members Amato and Alcos.

Okay. And for the Senate, myself as chair, Gabbard as co chair, Senator Lee, co chair and Fevella Member.

Okay, thank you, Senator. Again, I believe the only difference here is the effective date on this one. Do you have any indication if this might be in the budget?

No, I think I'm mistaken. It's another water bill that's in the budget, not this one.

So, okay, what we can do is propose a CD one with the amount reflected and hope that we can get the money committees to clear it. Let's see here. My understanding is the fiscal impact of this bill over a three year period would be $745,325. So we will.

745,000. How many?

325. Yeah. 745325. So what we'll do is prepare a CD1 with that amount as well as a clean effective date for your consideration and hope again that the money committees can find funding for this. So is tomorrow at 1:45 in this room amenable to you?

This is Tuesday.

Yes. Okay. Okay, so with that we'll turn it over to you for the two Senate bills on the remaining agenda.

Okay. For Senate Bill 657 relating to the Center for Climate Resilient Development, UH , soest conference says myself as chair, Gabbard, Hashimoto, co chairs and Fevella as Member.

Okay, thank you. And for the House represent, myself and Reps. Hashim and Lamosavas, co chairs and Member Souza.

Okay. At this point we don't have any drafts on this ready to go. So roll this over to Wednesday. Okay.

With 3:00pm Work 23.

Yes.

Okay, so Senate Bill 657.

We have Wednesday already. At what time? 3:00 clock. Can we keep it closer to the 3? 3:15.

Okay.

What did it. What did you say at first?

Oh, we said 3pm earlier. And we can put all this on one agenda if that's okay.

Yeah, we'll put on one agenda.

Yeah. Okay, so SB 657, Wednesday, April 23rd at 3:00pm in this room 229. Okay. Thank you, Senator.

Okay, and moving on to our last one, Senate Bill 865, this is relating to Agriculture, UH, CTAHR establishment of the Kona Cooperative Extension. Senate conferees: myself as chair, Kanuha co-chair, and Fevella as member.

Okay. Thank you, Senator. For the House, myself and Rep. Holt as co-chairs, Members Kapela, Lamosao, and Souza.

Okay. We are prepared to go to a CD 1.

Okay.

And I understand that SOS would prefer an extension agent instead of a education support associate. Is that correct? I see. Okay, so if we do that, you're not going to come next year and ask me for an education support position.

If we give you, we elevate it to an extension agent instead of a educational support associate position, alright, you're not going to come back next year and ask me for educational support associate position. You will not. Okay. I just wanted to get on the record.

Okay, because I don't want you coming in and say, 'oh, we need an educational support to go with the two that you gave us.' Okay. Okay. With that, we will go ahead and go ahead and get a draft, and why don't we do that for Wednesday because it might take us a little bit to get together.

Okay. So Wednesday, April 23rd at 3:00 p.m. in this room as well.

Okay. With that, we are adjourned.

All right. Thank you, Senator.

Okay. Good afternoon and welcome. This is our Monday, April 21st, 2025, 1:30pm Conference Committee in Conference Room 224 with the Hawaii State Senate Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection and the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce. We have five bills on the agenda. The first three are House bills.

I'll yield to my co chair from the House.

Yep. First up we have HB 70 HD1 SD1 relating to condominiums. This bill is a bill that requires information from on the condominium budget to not reference other portions of the budget and also some good faith or potential good faith exemptions to it.

On behalf of the House we have myself and Representative Todd as co chairs, Representatives Iwamoto and Pierick as members who are excused.

And on behalf of the Senate, myself as chair, Senator Rhoads, co Chair, Senators Fukunaga, McKelvey and Awa Members.

Yeah, I believe we have an agreement on this. I think we're going to put the good faith exemption back in there and, but we're still working on the conference draft. So once we get a conference draft I'll get that over to you.

I believe the. Yeah, that's fine. I believe we were considering in the conference draft the Senate position which was the removal of the exception. So it might already be removal of the exception.

I think that's the House. Oh, okay, okay, okay. Right.

253 is the other one.

Okay, so you guys don't want the good faith exemption in there.

Right now there's a good faith exemption in the statute and so the Senate position was to keep it.

Oh, keep it in there. Yeah, yeah. So we're gonna. Right, so the House, this, this version I think doesn't have it but I think we're gonna put it back in anyway. I'll, we'll, we'll, we'll work it out. We'll review this evening.

I think we are of like mind on this one.

Yeah, I think so too. Okay, so yeah, we will roll it. You Want to roll a one? Just rolling it to 24. I need a pen. Does anyone have a push? Myself. Okay, gonna roll it. 24 hours.

That sounds good. 1:30pm here.

Yep. 1:30pm room 224. Okay.

All right, good. Next up we have HP554 HD1 SD1 relating to pet insurance. This just establishes regulations relating to pet insurance. On behalf of the House we have myself as chair and Representatives Chun and Pierick as Members. And Pierick is excused.

Thank you. On behalf of the Senate, myself as Chair Rhoads Co Chair, Okunaga Richards, Awa Members. And if I can, with your indulgence, just go back and clarify that. House Bill 70, we are deferring action on until tomorrow, April 22, 2025 at 1:30pm in room 224.

Yes, that's correct.

Okay, thank you.

For the pet insurance Bill, I believe we sent a CD over. Did that CD look good to you guys?

I'm not sure. We'll check and review it. I believe we have an understanding on that measure as well.

Yes, I believe so. Okay, so you want to defer this one to tomorrow, 24 hours, 1:30. Okay, so 1:30. This is for decision making. 1:30, room 224 on April 22nd.

Yes.